Safety belts are designed to protect the occupants of a vehicle during events such as automobile collisions. In low-speed collisions, the occupants are generally protected from impact with objects located inside the vehicle such as the windshield, the instrument panel, a door, the side windows, or the steering wheel by the action of the safety belt. In more severe collisions, however, even belted occupants may experience an impact with the car's interior. Airbag systems were developed to supplement conventional safety belts by deploying into the space between an occupant and an interior object or surface in the vehicle during a collision event. The airbag acts to decelerate the occupant, thus reducing the chances of injury caused by contact with the vehicle's interior.
Many typical airbag systems consist of several individual components joined to form an operational airbag module. Such components generally include an airbag cushion, an airbag inflator, a sensor, and an electronic control unit. Airbag cushions are typically made of a thin fabric that is folded to fit into a compartment of a steering wheel, dashboard, interior compartment, roof, roof rail, roof compartment, or other space in a vehicle. The airbag inflator is in fluid communication with the airbag cushion, and is configured to produce a gas to inflate the cushion when it is needed. The sensors detect sudden decelerations of the vehicle that are characteristic of an impact. The readings taken by the sensors are processed in the electronic control unit using an algorithm to determine whether a collision has occurred.
Upon detection of an impact of sufficient severity, the control unit sends an electrical signal to the inflator. The inflator uses one of many technologies currently known in the art to produce a volume of an inflation gas. The inflation gas is channeled into the airbag, inflating it. Inflation of the airbag causes it to deploy, placing it in a position to receive the impact of a vehicle occupant. After contact of the occupant with the airbag and the corresponding deceleration of the occupant, the airbag rapidly deflates. To accomplish this, the inflation gas is vented from openings in the airbag, deflating it and freeing the occupant to exit the vehicle.
As experience in the manufacture and use of airbag modules has increased, the engineering challenges involved in their design, construction, and use have become better understood. Most airbag modules include an airbag cushion, an inflator, an initiator, and often a housing enclosing the components and electronic connections needed to carry signals from external sensors to the module to cause its deployment. The components of an airbag module must be arranged to provide proper deployment of the airbag cushion. In addition, the components must be mounted to each other and to the vehicle in a manner sufficiently secure to successfully withstand the vibrations, shocks, and other forces experienced in an operating motor vehicle.
Currently, initiators are attached to inflators indirectly, being first placed in an adaptor customized to fit the particular inflator and initiator in use, and then using a crimping process to secure the initiator within the adaptor. The adaptor also includes features provided to serve as a connector socket for the attachment of the electronics used to initiate deployment of the airbag module. Initiators are generally inserted into the adaptors, and then a portion of the adaptor is crimped about the initiator, securing it into place such that when the adaptor is inserted into the airbag module, the initiator is capable of initiating production of inflation gas by the inflator even after long periods of vehicle operation.
The adaptors used in these currently known processes are complex parts that must be individually manufactured to accommodate the connector geometries used by various automotive manufacturers. Often the adaptors are custom-machined parts that are costly to produce and use, thus raising the costs of inflators. Accordingly, a need exists for methods of securely attaching an initiator and a connector socket to an airbag module. It would be a further advantage in the art to provide such a method which avoids the costs associated with the crimping-based methods discussed above, while still providing a gas tight seal. Such methods are provided herein.